Picasso Guitars: 1912-1914

'Piece by piece it’s entrancing. Taken as a whole it’s a record of a brief but intense revolution that generated some of the most challenging ideas in modern art' - New York Times

A fascinating and richly illustrated book of Picasso's cardboard and sheet metal guitar sculptures

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this volume explores Picasso's Guitars -  modest yet revolutionary cardboard and sheet metal Guitar sculptures and their role in Picasso's embrace of cubism. These sculptures originated in October 1912, while in what he described as the process of imagining a guitar, Picasso embraced the radical techniques of collage, construction, and mixed-media painting, frequently combining traditional artists supplies oil paint, charcoal, pastel, ink with what were then unconventional materials, including cardboard, newspaper, wallpaper, sheet music and sand. 

This beautiful catalogue incorporates photographs, correspondence, archival records and eyewitness accounts, which provide insights into Picasso's practice and the remarkable institutional history behind the acquisition of the two Guitar sculptures. The book affords a fresh understanding of the unique material and historical qualities of Picasso's work in the years immediately prior to World War I.

Details

• Author: Anne Umland, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art 
• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Date published: February 2011
• Language: English
• Delivery: Allow 2-3 weeks
• ISBN: 978-0870707940
• Product Dimensions: 26.4 x 21.1 cm